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+====== DEAFNESS.======
+{{anchor:s2}}BY CARROLL DUNHAM, M. D., NEWBURGH, N. Y.
+{{anchor:s3}}G. W. W., aged 17 years, small, but well proportioned and of good constitution, healthy since his 9th year, has been deaf since he was 4 years old. {{anchor:s4}}When 3 years of age, he had an eruptive disease of the whole scalp, which, after resisting for a year all the milder methods of allopathic treatment was finally caused to disappear, in the following manner: — A tar-cap was placed upon the head, and, when firmly adherent to the scabs, was violently torn off. {{anchor:s5}}The scabs came with it, leaving the whole scalp raw. {{anchor:s6}}This raw surface was moistened with a saturated solution of nitrate of silver. {{anchor:s7}}The eruption did not reappear; but from that time, the child was deaf.
+{{anchor:s8}}"The condition of the youth now excites the earnest solicitude of his friends, if is inability to move in society, or to get a situation in business, on account of his deafness, has produced a morbid state of mind. {{anchor:s9}}He broods over his infirmity, and secludes himself even from his own family."
+{{anchor:s10}}Under these circumstances, he applied to me to be cured of his deafness. {{anchor:s11}}His present condition is as follows: — He is quite unable to hear ordinary conversation, and has never heard a sermon in his life. {{anchor:s12}}A loud-ticking lever watch can be heard at a distance of 3 1-2 inches from either ear. {{anchor:s13}}On application of the watch to his forehead, or to the teeth, he hears it distinctly. {{anchor:s14}}Occasional buzzing noises in front of the ears. {{anchor:s15}}A physical examination of his ears reveals the following condition: — The external meatus is abundantly supplied with soft, normal wax. {{anchor:s16}}The membrana tympani is white, opaque, and evidently thickened. {{anchor:s17}}When the patient attempts to inflate the middle ear, (which he accomplishes, with great difficulty, by closing both mouth and nose and making a forcible expiration,) the membrana tympani becomes but very slightly convex, and it is impossible to distinguish its distended blood vessels. {{anchor:s18}}There has evidently been a deposit in the substance of the membrane. {{anchor:s19}}On examination of the throat, it appears that the orifice of the eustachian tube is free.
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s20}}Feb.</span> 3, 1857. Patient received a powder containing 3 globules of Mezereum 30, to be taken on retiring.
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s21}}Feb.</span> 24. Thinks he hears better — "every sound seems much louder than before.{{anchor:s22}}" Hears my watch at a distance of 4 1-2 inches from the right ear, and 4 1-4 from the left ear. {{anchor:s23}}Sac. lactis.
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s24}}March</span> 1. {{anchor:s25}}Has not improved during the last week. {{anchor:s26}}Mez. 30, 3 gl.
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s27}}March</span> 27. {{anchor:s28}}Hears my watch, with the right ear, 6 1-2 inches, and with the left ear, 7 inches. {{anchor:s29}}Sac. lactis.
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s30}}April</span> 20. {{anchor:s31}}Hears my watch, with the right ear, at a distance of 10 inches, and with the left, at a distance of 14 inches. {{anchor:s32}}Hears ordinary conversation easily, with attention. {{anchor:s33}}Sac. lactis.
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s34}}Sept.</span> 28. {{anchor:s35}}Has been steadily improving until three weeks ago, when he became more deaf again, without apparent cause. {{anchor:s36}}Mez. 30, 3 gl., on retiring.
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s37}}Jan.</span> 26, 1858. Hears my watch at a distance of 14 inches from the right ear, and 24 inches from the left ear. {{anchor:s38}}Deafness returns when he takes cold, but disappears with the cold. {{anchor:s39}}Mez. 30, 3 gl., on retiring.
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s40}}March</span> 19. {{anchor:s41}}To his surprise, on going to church, although seated at the extreme end of a very large building, he distinctly heard the whole sermon — for the first time in his life. {{anchor:s42}}On physical examination, the opacity of the membrana tympani is found to have disappeared, and its elasticity to have sensibly increased.
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s43}}May</span> 24. Patient writes me that he has obtained, without difficulty, a situation in a store, and that he is no longer conscious of being deaf. {{anchor:s44}}His sole difficulty is that, as he has the reputation of being deaf, everybody shouts at him. {{anchor:s45}}His father writes, that the son's hearing is "perfectly restored."
+<span grade2>{{anchor:s46}}Remarks.</span> {{anchor:s47}}— The success of the treatment resorted to in this case, warrants a few remarks upon its rationale. {{anchor:s48}}Here was a case which presented to the practitioner apparently nothing on which to base a prescription. {{anchor:s49}}There was a thickened membrana tympani — nothing more. {{anchor:s50}}The work of thickening had probably been accomplished years ago. {{anchor:s51}}Here was a <span grade2>pathologico-anatomical condition,</span> but <span grade2>no pathological process</span> and, consequently, there were no abnormally performed functions — or, in other words, no symptoms of disease — from which to draw indications for treatment. {{anchor:s52}}The pathologico anatomical <span grade2>condition</span> threw no certain light on the pathological <span grade2>process</span> which had produced it — just as a knowledge of the town, at which a traveler has arrived, gives no certain clue to the road by which he reached it.
+{{anchor:s53}}But, as Hahnemann advised his disciples, the <span grade2>history of a case</span> is often of the utmost importance in determining the treatment. {{anchor:s54}}In the case before us, the coincidence between the violent removal of the tinea capitis, by nitrate of silver and the appearance of the deafness, was too marked to escape notice. {{anchor:s55}}It could not fail to occur to the practitioner that the scalp disease was one phase of a <span grade2>psoric</span> affection, as Hahnemann would have called it — or of a dyscrasia, as the modern school of German pathologists would say (for the doctrine of the dyscrasias is but a re-hash of Hahnemann's psora theory,) and that this affection, disturbed in its localization upon the scalp, had transferred itself to the tissues of the ear. {{anchor:s56}}It further occurred to me that, since in this latter localization there were no sufficient indications for a prescription, I might find such indications in the phenomena of the former localization upon the scalp. {{anchor:s57}}I accordingly addressed myself to the task of getting a complete picture of this affection, which had disappeared thirteen years before. {{anchor:s58}}By good fortune, the mother of the patient was possessed of a good memory, and of very excellent powers of description, and from her I learned that "thick, whitish scabs, hard and almost horny, covered the whole scalp. {{anchor:s59}}There were fissures in the scales, through which, on pressure, there exuded a thick, yellowish pus, often very offensive. {{anchor:s60}}There was great itching, and a disposition to tear off the scabs with the finger nails — especially troublesome at night."
+{{anchor:s61}}The remedy which corresponds most closely, in its pathogenesis, with the above group of symptoms, is undoubtedly <span grade2>Mezereum.</span> {{anchor:s62}}In the introduction to the proving of that drug, in the Chronic Diseases, Vol. IV, Hahnemann recommends it for moist eruptions of the scalp. {{anchor:s63}}In the proving, in the Archiv., Vol. IV, many symptoms point to a similar eruption — itching, especially, at night; but the conclusive group of pathogenetic symptoms, is the following, from a new proving of Mezereum, by the late Dr. Wahle, of Rome, of which the manuscript was shown me by his son, the present Dr. Wahle:
+{{anchor:s64}}"Head covered over with a thick leather-like crust, under which thick white pus collects here and there and the hair is glued together; on the head, great elevated irregular white scabs under which pus collects in quantity and becomes offensive and breeds vermin. {{anchor:s65}}The child keeps scratching its face and head at night, and continually tears off the scabs."
+{{anchor:s66}}The resemblance between these groups of symptoms was so striking that Mezereum was at once selected, as the remedy for this case of <span grade2>deafness,</span> just as if the scalp affection had been still in its original form, and had been the immediate object of the prescription. —
+{{anchor:s67}}It not unfrequently occurs that we are called upon to prescribe for what seem rather <span grade2>results,</span> of morbid actions, than active diseases — In such cases, it would seem that we may often successfully base a prescription upon the symptoms of a diseased condition which no longer exists but which form in reality a part of the case. {{anchor:s68}}It may not be amiss to call attention to the completeness of the corroboration which this case affords/were any needed,) of Hahnemann's <span grade2>psora theory.</span> {{anchor:s69}}It is hardly necessary to say that Hahnemann had no idea of restricting the appellation psora to itch, as we understand that term, that is to the disease caused by the acarus. {{anchor:s70}}On the contrary in his Chronic Diseases Vol. IV, he expressly includes under it <span grade2>various forms;</span> as "<span grade2>Itch, Tinea Capitis, Herpes,</span> &c."
+----
+====== DOCUMENT DESCRIPTOR ======
+^ Source: | The AMERICAN HOMOEOPATHIC REVIEW Vol. 01 No. 01, 1858, pages 23-26 |
+^ Description: | Case of deafness cured by Mezereum; suppression of eruption by nitrate of silver (Argentum nitricum); importance of the history of a case |
+^ Remedies: | Mezereum |
+^ Author: | Dunham, C. |
+^ Year: | 1858 |
+^ Editing: | errors only; interlinks; formatting |
+^ Attribution: | Legatum Homeopathicum |

Legatum Homeopathicum

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